Mandu Gook, Korean Soup with Dumplings

I had a dozen dumplings in the freezer and a cold, so I could only think of making myself a big bowl of hot and spicy soup to combat the sniffles. I was too lazy to go anywhere to buy ingredients. I had to make do with whatever I could rummage in the pantry. Arugula? Check. Baby carrots? Check. Cabbage? Oooh, check. I found a small jar of dashi to make the broth taste like miso, and of course, there is a jar of kochujang paste to make it spicier.

Koreans call dumplings mandu. Included in a soup using clear broth, it becomes mandu gook. Most restaurant mandu gooks come with rice cakes, or dduk, and therefore called dduk mandu gook. And that’s enough Korean lesson for today. Here’s my Filipino version of the soup that helped keep the medicine away.

Ingredients:
12 dumplings, thawed if frozen
8 dduk, thawed if frozen
a small wedge of cabbage, roughly chopped
a handful of baby carrots
a handful of arugula
1 shallot, halved
1 tbsp kochujang paste
2 tbsps dashi granules
1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
salt

1. In a stock pot, boil 8 cups of water with the dashi and the shallot. Turn the heat to medium-low when boiling and add the vegetables until the carrots are tender.
2. During the last ten minutes of cooking, add the dduk and the dumplings to soften. Season to taste with salt and kochujang paste.

Related post/s:
Make your own dumplings
Make other soups with dashi